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Thorne & Daughters Tin Soldier 2023
R413.00
Tin Soldier is a skin-fermented wine made from Semillon Gris, which is almost unique to South Africa, and a vestige of a time when Semillon was the grape on which the South African wine industry was built. The vineyard has been established from a sélection massale of Semillon Gris cuttings taken from an adjacent vineyard of Semillon that was planted in 1963. For the 2023 wine, they have continued with their efforts to get a little bit more ripeness in the glass here. They needed to push through the late season rain a bit, but dry growing conditions meant that the blocks dried up quickly and there was no ill effect for the grapes.
“The colour of the wine is unusual, having taken some bright copper tones from about a week’s fermentation on skins. The wine shows aromas of ripe apricot, Thai basil, nutmeg and toasted pistachio, redolent of baklava. Over the past couple of years, we have dialled the ripeness up a notch, making for a more complete and ‘grown-up’ wine. The interplay between savoury and sweet is a key point of interest in Tin Soldier, and makes for a subtle and engaging wine. The wine shows complex aromas of gingerbread, tangerine rind, dried apricots and rust. The palate has apples, créme caramel and orange cake while being dry and grippy. The tannins recalling quince and rooibos tea.”
ANALYSIS: ALC 13.5% | RS 2.5 g/l | TA 6.7 g/l | pH 3.19
12 in stock
Description
If we go back 100 years, Semillon was responsible for probably 95% of the wine made in this country. Tim James’ research on the variety suggests that the red mutation may at one time have been even more common than the white. John is really fascinated by the idea of the kind of wines that would have been made in the old days using these mixed vineyards, and this led him to the idea of fermenting the grapes on their skins for a few days.
The one thing he wanted to avoid here, was making a ‘gimmick’ wine. In the run up to his first harvest of this wine, they were still considering what their approach might be to this unique varietal. While sampling the vineyard and tasting the grapes, they hit on the idea of fermenting it on skins to bring out the wonderful skin tannins and hopefully extract some of that wonderful colour. The extraction is managed very carefully to retain a delicacy in the wine, while bringing out a lot of complexity. Through the years they have also included a portion of the wine that is directly wholebunch pressed with no skin fermentation. This portion helps to lift the aromatic profile of the wine, and achieve this wonderful interplay of fruit and savoury tones that they enjoy in the wine. It is truly a wine they love.
All of their wines take their names from archetypal childrens’ toys, and Tin Soldier takes its name from Semillon’s status as the old footsoldier of the South African wine industry. Much like the old toy soldiers buried in the garden, Semillon has been reduced to a mere shadow of its former glory days in the Cape.
Additional Information
| Producer | Thorne & Daughters |
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